1987 gb500tt

[Nausea]

The GB arrived today (thanks Biketranz), this is Paulo's old bike from Wellington that now has a new home up here in Auckland. She needs a bit of a tidy up so I'll start this weekend by giving her a thorough clean & then see what shows up. BTW, does anybody know why some GBs are all one colour like this one & others have silver guards - was that just a year thing?

Anyway, I'd love to hear from any other people who have owned GBs in the past who may be able to pass on some tips & tricks :)

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q38/Clintebeans/20131106_171600Medium.jpg (http://s132.photobucket.com/user/Clintebeans/media/20131106_171600Medium.jpg.html)

[unstuck]

Nice bike. enjoy. :niceone:

[Str8 Jacket]

Oh yummy, love GB's! Enjoy :)

[BuzzardNZ]

Looks mint for its age. Nice find.

I've owned 3 GB400's and things I learned from them:

1) Change oil often.

2) Starter motors can die, 2 of mine did, but who cares when you have a kick-start.

3) Cam chain may need to be replaced if high kms and getting a bit rattly.

I wish they'd release a new version, I'd get one.

[fridayflash]

cool bike man, i had one and did loads of kays on it, that thing was bloody fast on gravel too hehe. your front and rear guards have been re-painted i reckon, single seat is cool, thats what i had altho the dual seat has merit insomuch as it lets you sit two inches higher thus releiving the knees a bit lol

[Bender]

Ride it.
*****

[avgas]

Looks mint for its age. Nice find.

I've owned 3 GB400's and things I learned from them:

1) Change oil often.

2) Starter motors can die, 2 of mine did, but who cares when you have a kick-start.

3) Cam chain may need to be replaced if high kms and getting a bit rattly.

I wish they'd release a new version, I'd get one.
1) Yes! - I found Visco 5000 the best out of all the tests I did (allowed for cold starts better).
2) Yeah I didn't care after the second one went. Its really easy to kick over. You also start to not care about the battery being flat either.
3) Around the 100-120,000 km mark for me. Horrible task.


your front and rear guards have been re-painted i reckon, single seat is cool, thats what i had altho the dual seat has merit insomuch as it lets you sit two inches higher thus releiving the knees a bit lol
Yeah from recall guards were always silver. Side covers matched the tank.
Single seat looks cool but feels horrible after 15 minutes. The dual seat is a huge improvement.

[Nausea]

It came with both a single & double seat which is good... and starter motor is already dodgy.

What normally goes in the starters, is it the bushes or the solenoids or do they just die completely?

[avgas]

It came with both a single & double seat which is good... and starter motor is already dodgy.

What normally goes in the starters, is it the bushes or the solenoids or do they just die completely?
Yes. :lol:

Nothing in particular......different parts at different times. Generally when it dies its stuffed and cost of rebuild outweighs cost of replacement. (well for me 3 times).
Its rather exposed, runs high load and in not the best quality. So you might fix the bushes and 6 months latter find and electrical fault. Fix that and 6 months later find something else to fail on it.

[Wingnut]

Yes. :lol:

Nothing in particular......different parts at different times. Generally when it dies its stuffed and cost of rebuild outweighs cost of replacement. (well for me 3 times).
Its rather exposed, runs high load and in not the best quality. So you might fix the bushes and 6 months latter find and electrical fault. Fix that and 6 months later find something else to fail on it.

So they really did try and replicate british motorcycling then. Not just in styling but in reliability also....

[BuzzardNZ]

So they really did try and replicate british motorcycling then. Not just in styling but in reliability also....

Not true. Apart from the starter motor, the GB's are ultra reliable. I never had anything ( apart from normal wear and tear ) go wrong with any of mine. They kick over really easy, so most don't bother replacing the starter motor.

[Nausea]

The previous owner said the same thing about the kick-start :)

Do you recommend regular or super gas for these bikes?

I hope the weather improves so I can go for a blat over the weekend, typical having the rain come down now!

This one has Tomaselli aftermarket clip-ons & one side actually lightly touches the tank, do the standard clip-ons come that close to the tank too?

So many questions haha! :rolleyes:

[BuzzardNZ]

The previous owner said the same thing about the kick-start :)

Do you recommend regular or super gas for these bikes?

I hope the weather improves so I can go for a blat over the weekend, typical having the rain come down now!

This one has Tomaselli aftermarket clip-ons & one side actually lightly touches the tank, do the standard clip-ons come that close to the tank too?

So many questions haha! :rolleyes:

All mine ran on regular. I seem to recall that's what was recommended in the handbook. The good old GB's have a pretty decent sized tank on them , plus they run on the smell of an oily rag. Most economical bike I've ever owned.

I seem to recall dents in the tank from the stock clip-ons on one ( or more ) of mine.

How available are parts for these things now? Can you still get genuine ones?

[IkieBikie]

Do you recommend regular or super gas for these bikes?


I use higher octane petrol and runs fine

Have you got the workshop manual - if not I have one but in hard copy only

[avgas]

If setup properly the bars shouldn't touch the tank, this will break your wrist in a crash (DAMHIK). The tommo bars are about 1/2 inch longer from recall, so might just touch, what bar end weights are you running? or do you just have the enclosed grip on the end?
They can run 91-104 octane stock. But if your going to run 96+ more often I recommend an iridium plug. Less hassle and seems to help for some reason.

Yeah kicking is really easy. 1/4 choke, kick. Should start first time every time. If you kick 3 times and nothing, turn off choke and try kicking without......but I would suspect something else is up (like kill switch). Likewise engine is very reliable. If you remove the starter I have had bikes that haven't been serviced in decades and still work.

[Nausea]

It isn't running any bar end weights, or an enclosed grip on the end. It looks like it had a bar end mirror on there at some time & I wouldn't mind getting some more of those in future. The bike did come with the standard clip-ons too.

91 it is! No point in running a higher octane than necessary.

Thanks for all of the replies, the info is much appreciated.

Still rainy here :(

[actungbaby]

real nice bike from memory there where silver ones too . they imported the jap import

400 cc model there are not many 500.s so should go up in years to come

so silver guards are probley somone added diffrent guard of the another bike.

[actungbaby]

If setup properly the bars shouldn't touch the tank, this will break your wrist in a crash (DAMHIK). The tommo bars are about 1/2 inch longer from recall, so might just touch, what bar end weights are you running? or do you just have the enclosed grip on the end?
They can run 91-104 octane stock. But if your going to run 96+ more often I recommend an iridium plug. Less hassle and seems to help for some reason.

Yeah kicking is really easy. 1/4 choke, kick. Should start first time every time. If you kick 3 times and nothing, turn off choke and try kicking without......but I would suspect something else is up (like kill switch). Likewise engine is very reliable. If you remove the starter I have had bikes that haven't been serviced in decades and still work.

Yeah the old trick pushing down on kickstarter till u get reisistance then let it up and

Giving good go

[Paulo]

oh there she is, Yes that was mine a bout one year ago (the second one I've had) great bike and it never let me down, Did the seller include the spare tank and GB400 fairing? hope so.

Yep the starter was a bit intermittent when I had it too. generally I'd kick start when cold but once warmed up it was pretty good with the starter, these bike occasionally cut out whist idling (like at the lights) never worked out why but apparently it's one of their quirks, just give the throttle a little blip now and then.

Hope you enjoy her and keep her shiny side up : )

oh it did have bar end weights at some point and it's also had bar end mirrors, I found the ones that you can rotate (they have a pivot) handy as you can have them in a sensible position for viewing but also fold them down when lane splitting.

[Nausea]

Yes it did come with a spare tank & fairing. The seller forgot to include the owner's manual, toolkit & double seat so I'm hoping to pick those up when I go to Wellington early next month. The reason the R/H bar is hitting the tank is that the clip-on isn't quite straight. I undid the little grub screw & big Allen bolt at top but it wouldn't budge - is there a secret to those I'm missing?

Anyway, so much for cleaning up the bike yesterday. I took it out for a quick ride & that turned into a few hours so not much else was achieved after that haha. It did cut out a couple of times & I'm still getting used to the kick start as I've never owned a kick start bike before... I'm not right-legged so a bit unco on that side.

But awesome to be back on a bike & yesterday was a great day for riding. I had a few smiles & my brother's neighbor saw it & commented that he had 'always wanted one of those'.

Aaaah motorbikes...

[Paulo]

Yes it did come with a spare tank & fairing. The seller forgot to include the owner's manual, toolkit & double seat so I'm hoping to pick those up when I go to Wellington early next month. The reason the R/H bar is hitting the tank is that the clip-on isn't quite straight. I undid the little grub screw & big Allen bolt at top but it wouldn't budge - is there a secret to those I'm missing?

Anyway, so much for cleaning up the bike yesterday. I took it out for a quick ride & that turned into a few hours so not much else was achieved after that haha. It did cut out a couple of times & I'm still getting used to the kick start as I've never owned a kick start bike before... I'm not right-legged so a bit unco on that side.

But awesome to be back on a bike & yesterday was a great day for riding. I had a few smiles & my brother's neighbor saw it & commented that he had 'always wanted one of those'.

Aaaah motorbikes...

hmm not sure about the grub screw and clipons adjustment , never had any bother but that was a year ago (might need some wd40 or something squirted in to loosen it up), Glad you go the spare tank and fairing double seat etc. With the kickstart you sort of prime it with a a half kick , you'll feel it move into position to get a full kick on the second go hard to describe more of a feeling thing.

Enjoy !

[Banditbandit]

I had an FT400 - which hard a very similar starter motor setup - my sarter motor never failed - and I did something like 150,000 klicks on it ..

Have a look at the starter motor - where the wires enter the body there is a small plate (on the bottom of the starter body). Remove that and have a look at the contacts - if you keep these clean the starter motor works every time ... I never replaced the starter motor on y FT ...

[Padmei]

I seem to remember older fellas looking over with far away eyes as I stood on the forecourt of the servo kicking over my old 400.

[Nausea]

Took the bike to Spectrum yesterday to get her serviced & have an expert eye check her out for me just in case anything urgent needed doing. She has now had a good service including new plug, oil, filter, checking valve clearances & will have a new air filter once it arrives from Honda. I asked them to check out a bit of a speed wobble & it turned out the front wheel was out of true & needed the spokes adjusting. It also needed a new brake light switch.

...phew.

All fixed now though & she is riding sweet although the R/H clip-on is seized so cannot be adjusted. I'm going to put the original clip-ons back on the bike when I get a chance. In the next year I will need to do a cam chain & rear brake pads by the looks of things... but right now she still needs a good clean so fingers-crossed for a rain-free weekend.

The guys at Spectrum are just as awesome as they were the last time I dealt with them in 2006, highly recommended for anybody who is looking for a mechanic on the 'Shore.

Thanks for all of your tips, I'm getting the hang of the kick start now! :)

[more_fasterer]

Looking good mate, I like the colour :)

[ICE180]

MY was a 400 now its a 650 so I have got to knw them quite well

they are heaps of fun in the twisty bits

have a look at My mod post if you want it ws a fun project

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php/153793-Honda-GB400-now-GB650

[Yamahardman]

I've got one, It's british racing green with a bikini type fairing.
Its got a 500, with super long sprockets.
Does well over the ton.
Handling is great, i love it, brakes are pretty meh though.

Sadly though, she blew the base gasket the other day, so i'll replace it, and while im in there, chuck in the 600 barrel and piston.
Awesome bikes, engines are xr engines, so heaps of parts.

Enjoy!

[Nausea]

Interesting - does anybody know if there were more GB400s or GB500s sold in NZ?

I cleaned the bike and fitted the chain guard then put the standard clip-ons back on. As Avgas stated earlier, the standard clip-ons are about 1/2 an inch shorter but now the handle grips overhang the edge of the bar.... is that normal?

[awa355]

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/awa355/GB5002.jpg The bar end mirrors do look better than the original ones.

[BuzzardNZ]

Interesting - does anybody know if there were more GB400s or GB500s sold in NZ?



I certainly noticed more 400's about

[Nausea]

The bar end mirrors do look better than the original ones.

That is a very clean looking bike, mine came with the same style bikini fairing. Are they the Napoleon bar end mirrors you have on there?

[awa355]

That is a very clean looking bike, mine came with the same style bikini fairing. Are they the Napoleon bar end mirrors you have on there?

The mirrors were on the bike when I bought it. They would not have been cheap. No vibrations, just a pain to move around the bike without catching the damn things with your arms. The fairing created a lot of engine clatter in the air behind the fairing. I traded backwards from a 2008 to a 1988 model. The wife was not pleased.

Here is a rear shot of the mirrors.

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/awa355/bw2.jpg